A typical Ghanaian football fan is that person whose temperature rise the highest whenever the team he supports plays. You will find in his heart the emblem or badge of either Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or even Manchester City tattooed deeply.
On a Matchday, everything in his life stops; or otherwise built around the 3pm kickoff that his team plays. The Church on a Sunday suffers if it dares extends into kickoff time;the prayers in the Mosque groans if any are sandwiched between a Live game yet he is the 1st to pray for his team's victory when opportuned.
He would rather skip a meal or two just to watch Chelsea play.
He dorns the Man U memorabilia up to his boxers. He wants to wear all Arsenal's 3 jerseys for every season...In his room the posters of Steven Gerrard has taken over the sacred place that his Religious piece hitherto were.
He blabs the loudest before kickoff; celeberates the most when his team wins...yet he is so meek and obscure whenever they lose.Like most in his category, he stumbled on Football because his space was crowded by zealots who bullied him into the unstructured football followership and in order to make it structured; they organize meetings like you have of Associations; they buy clothes and shoes to match and celebrate with huge fanfares similar of baby showers or house warmings.
He is that person that is very conclusive without antecedence; He looks more at face values to make judgements and he is quick to the hilt to defend his club to the point of death. The death though is not his...it is for his opponents whenever his team loses and he is very angered by that fact, hence he is willing to kill an opposing fan or two.
He believes the Black Stars has the right to win every match or competition without hardwork but prayers yet he is the first to condemn, discard or bin the team after just 1 match.
His wife and children have joined the bandwagon...afterall the more the merrier. And together they form a formidable team against their neighbour who dared support Barcelona.
Outrightly a case of 'if you can’t beat them...join them' therefore every social commentators devoid of football knowledge have also deemed it fit to delve into terrain they knew next to nothing about.
They write articles and even make predictions of outcomes of tournaments that is just 1 game old!!!. The average Ghanaian Football Fan could be suffering amidst so many socio-economic woes and together with the rise in blood pressure provided by matchday anxieties, he becomes a carrier bag for various forms of heart diseases that terminates young lives.
These fans listen only to information that concerns their teams positively but they are more in tune with negative information on their team's nearest rivals.
He knows better and has wrapped his football fanactism with extremism therefore subjecting his neighbourhood into torrential anti-social-behaviour.
Egos fledge and flare on matchdays...and after matches some consider temporary relocation or contemplate suicide instead of facing and admitting defeat of their teams. They are the Ghanaian Football fans...clearly visible @ viewing Centres near you.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
We Are All Guilty
Ghana is a nation bedeviled by plentiful problems. It is very common for Ghanaian masses to blameworthiness their leaders as the cause of the nation’s woes, little did they ponder to reflect on their contribution to the genesis of these problems.
I believe Ghana is not a poor nation; but is a nation poorly managed by its leaders and the ordinary citizens.
The greatest problem facing Ghana today is corruption that has became a deep-seated menace in the minds of Ghanaians; it has even become a way of life to most Ghanaians from top government officials, politicians down to the lowest ranking civil servant.
Most of the corruption by top government official is perpetrated with the collaboration of a junior cashier who raises a bogus cheque and receives a paltry amount from the loot; oblivious of the fact that by that collaboration, he has denied his child access to quality education or good health care for his family members and his community at large.
The masses are also the greatest collaborators of politicians in election rigging, snatching of ballot boxes and thuggery during political campaigns and elections.
A party delegate may be bribed to impose an incompetent candidate on the electorate or rigged an indolent legislator into office wittingly or unwittingly doing a great disservice to his community and his nation at large. Where elections are rigged the masses destroy and burn government buildings and properties in protest.
The masses are the ones that kill and destroy each others’ property during civil disturbances on trivial reasons. It doesn’t matter to them that they have lived in the same neighborhood for a long time; as far as there is a religious or ethnic difference between them, because they don’t seem to believe that they share the same humanity with one another.
Ghanaians generally do not like obeying rules and regulations; they perceive most laws as punitive. That is why most motorists will not wear seat belts while driving. They don’t view those laws as safety measures to safeguard their lives; but just something to make them uncomfortable.
The negative behaviors of our leaders are reflections of the general behaviour of our society; because the leaders have emerged from the larger Ghanaian society.
.
Our society teaches our children to respect only wealth and affluence; hence we don’t value honesty and transparency in our daily activities. Teachers and parents now even collaborate with students to cheat during examinations.
Having emerged from this type of background, do we then expect our leaders to behave differently from the larger Ghanaian society?
Ghanaian leaders have mismanaged the resources of the nation to the extent that the country cannot provide essential services like pipe borne water, electricity, education and effective health care delivery to its citizens.
The leaders continuously siphon money from the treasury because they know that their wealth and affluence determines the respect they earn from the society; it may even earn them chieftaincy titles from their communities or even an honorary degree from a university. They can sponsor their children’s education in expensive foreign schools, maintain their generators at home and afford to pay for their health care in foreign hospitals.
If truth must be told, Ghanaians are all guilty; both the leaders and the ordinary citizens, because they have all contributed to the genesis of these problems.
It is high time we realize that we have been doing great disservice to our nation. We should collectively change our attitudes and choose the path of progress instead of retardation.
I believe we can change the way our country is governed by collectively embracing honesty, hard work, patriotism, transparency and respect for rule of law as our values rather than respect for wealth and affluence.
I believe Ghana is not a poor nation; but is a nation poorly managed by its leaders and the ordinary citizens.
The greatest problem facing Ghana today is corruption that has became a deep-seated menace in the minds of Ghanaians; it has even become a way of life to most Ghanaians from top government officials, politicians down to the lowest ranking civil servant.
Most of the corruption by top government official is perpetrated with the collaboration of a junior cashier who raises a bogus cheque and receives a paltry amount from the loot; oblivious of the fact that by that collaboration, he has denied his child access to quality education or good health care for his family members and his community at large.
The masses are also the greatest collaborators of politicians in election rigging, snatching of ballot boxes and thuggery during political campaigns and elections.
A party delegate may be bribed to impose an incompetent candidate on the electorate or rigged an indolent legislator into office wittingly or unwittingly doing a great disservice to his community and his nation at large. Where elections are rigged the masses destroy and burn government buildings and properties in protest.
The masses are the ones that kill and destroy each others’ property during civil disturbances on trivial reasons. It doesn’t matter to them that they have lived in the same neighborhood for a long time; as far as there is a religious or ethnic difference between them, because they don’t seem to believe that they share the same humanity with one another.
Ghanaians generally do not like obeying rules and regulations; they perceive most laws as punitive. That is why most motorists will not wear seat belts while driving. They don’t view those laws as safety measures to safeguard their lives; but just something to make them uncomfortable.
The negative behaviors of our leaders are reflections of the general behaviour of our society; because the leaders have emerged from the larger Ghanaian society.
.
Our society teaches our children to respect only wealth and affluence; hence we don’t value honesty and transparency in our daily activities. Teachers and parents now even collaborate with students to cheat during examinations.
Having emerged from this type of background, do we then expect our leaders to behave differently from the larger Ghanaian society?
Ghanaian leaders have mismanaged the resources of the nation to the extent that the country cannot provide essential services like pipe borne water, electricity, education and effective health care delivery to its citizens.
The leaders continuously siphon money from the treasury because they know that their wealth and affluence determines the respect they earn from the society; it may even earn them chieftaincy titles from their communities or even an honorary degree from a university. They can sponsor their children’s education in expensive foreign schools, maintain their generators at home and afford to pay for their health care in foreign hospitals.
If truth must be told, Ghanaians are all guilty; both the leaders and the ordinary citizens, because they have all contributed to the genesis of these problems.
It is high time we realize that we have been doing great disservice to our nation. We should collectively change our attitudes and choose the path of progress instead of retardation.
I believe we can change the way our country is governed by collectively embracing honesty, hard work, patriotism, transparency and respect for rule of law as our values rather than respect for wealth and affluence.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Breaking News: “Chop & Quench Democratic Party Formed!”
I am pleased to publicize the formation of the first true mammoth party in the fifty-two years history of Ghana. The Chop and Quench Democratic Party is set to take the country by storm, and we are on the cliff of history. For far too long, we (Ghanaians) have been too divided and complacent. The CQDP is designed to overcome these twin malaises.
The CQDP is the fulfillment of our founders dream; a clarification of our national principles, and above all the ultimate perch in our gigantic journey to matured democracy. Every generation has its heroes, and this generation will make heroes out of every CQDP member.
First, what is our modus operandi? Well, our intention is to unite all rogues, criminals, charlatans, never do wells and political apparatchiks across the political gamut under one entity.
Increasingly, we the corrupt (sorry well meaning) politicians of this country have been pursuing varied interests. We have fought for elections on the pretense of helping the people, and killed ourselves in the process. In the spirit if uhuru, CQDP is declaring an end to that. Henceforth, “sit-tightism” is abolished. Every criminal does a two year term, chops and quenches, and hands it over to the next! The era of sharing the national cake is over; the age of owning it free and clear for two years is here!
You might ask, what is our platform? Well, if you are not too dumb to realize it our mission is to chop and quench. That is, to chop your money and quench your spirit! By “your” of course I mean the electorates who have decided to remain outside the big umbrella of our union. Our platform is to ensure total state secrecy in budgeting, contract awards and implementation. We pledge to ensure maximum inefficiency at every turn, and hope to depreciate the standard of living of you the readers. Your air will not be safe, your taps will not run and even they do, the water will be dirty. Your roads will be deathtraps, and your hospitals shall become glorified mortuaries. Your electrical supply shall be epileptic, and your energy supply will run thin.
While you are at it, our party is pleased to announce that part of our founding membership is all Pastors, Bishops and Imams in Ghana. We even managed to buy the support of the ecclesiastical, which will confirm that we are truly leaving nothing to whims. Our motto is simple: lawless, useless and reckless. We will be lawless in our conduct, useless in our thinking and reckless in our spending. We pledge full allegiance to these core principles regardless of whose ox is gored!
Okay you are still too dumb to realize what is going on? No wonder you are not a CQDP member. Our members are the smartest and brightest con men that any nation can put together. Filled to brim with veteran examination cheats, and certificate mill patrons we are men that respect brawn over brains, and madness over meditation. For your information, we subscribe to the notion that liberals are sinners and conservatives are hypocrites hence we have every use for both ideology! In our camp we have primed human killing machines i.e. political thugs, and accredited financial weapons of mass destruction i.e. Ghana must go custodians.
If that still does not impress you, consider this: we have a track record. Our record of accomplishment is seven squared years of regression, and human development destruction. We have infested a continent with a cancer for lazy thinking, and abhorrent greed. We feast in excesses and celebrate the Lilliputians amongst us. Nothing fazes us anymore, in fact we routinely defend lawbreakers at home and abroad. Our party leaders are so blind justice, only ex-cons qualify for national party offices and important positions of reckoning.
In the interest of national stability we are declaring a “national chop free day”. On this day, every man or woman in our nation is allowed to “chop”. If you find anything, eat it! Cable, go ahead and eat it! If it is mat, eat it! If you see oil, please eat. Money, eat it. Even live goat, enjoy yourself. You’d be lucky to find anything after another forty nine years of our rule.
However, we are fully dedicated to the philosophy of eating and drinking. Common, our potbellies is a testimony to the ostentation of our appetite. Can’t you see our women? Their rotunda shaped body, and bell like shape creates chaos on the floor of the capital market such that the national GDP deflates in their presence!
Central to every political strategy is an identity; our party symbol and colors. Our party symbol is a locust. We are dedicated to plundering, and nothing better symbolizes this movement than this forthcoming arthropod makes no bones about its intention, and neither do we. Our mission is to do the impossible, to intentionally bankrupt the nation and render her citizens impoverished. Half a trillion, and still counting, we are only getting better at it. Our party color is black, because only our dark minds can fathom these great accomplishments.
In as much as your likes just read and turn the pages, the fate of our party is forever sealed. An arrogant association of never-do-wells that will continue to bestride your horizon like a colossus, while you forever regret the citizenship that birth has credited you.
The CQDP is the fulfillment of our founders dream; a clarification of our national principles, and above all the ultimate perch in our gigantic journey to matured democracy. Every generation has its heroes, and this generation will make heroes out of every CQDP member.
First, what is our modus operandi? Well, our intention is to unite all rogues, criminals, charlatans, never do wells and political apparatchiks across the political gamut under one entity.
Increasingly, we the corrupt (sorry well meaning) politicians of this country have been pursuing varied interests. We have fought for elections on the pretense of helping the people, and killed ourselves in the process. In the spirit if uhuru, CQDP is declaring an end to that. Henceforth, “sit-tightism” is abolished. Every criminal does a two year term, chops and quenches, and hands it over to the next! The era of sharing the national cake is over; the age of owning it free and clear for two years is here!
You might ask, what is our platform? Well, if you are not too dumb to realize it our mission is to chop and quench. That is, to chop your money and quench your spirit! By “your” of course I mean the electorates who have decided to remain outside the big umbrella of our union. Our platform is to ensure total state secrecy in budgeting, contract awards and implementation. We pledge to ensure maximum inefficiency at every turn, and hope to depreciate the standard of living of you the readers. Your air will not be safe, your taps will not run and even they do, the water will be dirty. Your roads will be deathtraps, and your hospitals shall become glorified mortuaries. Your electrical supply shall be epileptic, and your energy supply will run thin.
While you are at it, our party is pleased to announce that part of our founding membership is all Pastors, Bishops and Imams in Ghana. We even managed to buy the support of the ecclesiastical, which will confirm that we are truly leaving nothing to whims. Our motto is simple: lawless, useless and reckless. We will be lawless in our conduct, useless in our thinking and reckless in our spending. We pledge full allegiance to these core principles regardless of whose ox is gored!
Okay you are still too dumb to realize what is going on? No wonder you are not a CQDP member. Our members are the smartest and brightest con men that any nation can put together. Filled to brim with veteran examination cheats, and certificate mill patrons we are men that respect brawn over brains, and madness over meditation. For your information, we subscribe to the notion that liberals are sinners and conservatives are hypocrites hence we have every use for both ideology! In our camp we have primed human killing machines i.e. political thugs, and accredited financial weapons of mass destruction i.e. Ghana must go custodians.
If that still does not impress you, consider this: we have a track record. Our record of accomplishment is seven squared years of regression, and human development destruction. We have infested a continent with a cancer for lazy thinking, and abhorrent greed. We feast in excesses and celebrate the Lilliputians amongst us. Nothing fazes us anymore, in fact we routinely defend lawbreakers at home and abroad. Our party leaders are so blind justice, only ex-cons qualify for national party offices and important positions of reckoning.
In the interest of national stability we are declaring a “national chop free day”. On this day, every man or woman in our nation is allowed to “chop”. If you find anything, eat it! Cable, go ahead and eat it! If it is mat, eat it! If you see oil, please eat. Money, eat it. Even live goat, enjoy yourself. You’d be lucky to find anything after another forty nine years of our rule.
However, we are fully dedicated to the philosophy of eating and drinking. Common, our potbellies is a testimony to the ostentation of our appetite. Can’t you see our women? Their rotunda shaped body, and bell like shape creates chaos on the floor of the capital market such that the national GDP deflates in their presence!
Central to every political strategy is an identity; our party symbol and colors. Our party symbol is a locust. We are dedicated to plundering, and nothing better symbolizes this movement than this forthcoming arthropod makes no bones about its intention, and neither do we. Our mission is to do the impossible, to intentionally bankrupt the nation and render her citizens impoverished. Half a trillion, and still counting, we are only getting better at it. Our party color is black, because only our dark minds can fathom these great accomplishments.
In as much as your likes just read and turn the pages, the fate of our party is forever sealed. An arrogant association of never-do-wells that will continue to bestride your horizon like a colossus, while you forever regret the citizenship that birth has credited you.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Police And Thief: The Ghanaian Identity Problem
Growing up in the 90s, a game was common. We played this game of Police and Thief. The bad guy of course was the thief. After much chasing and hiding, it was normal for the police to catch the thief or for the police to shoot and kill the thief. That was based on simple logic, the triumph of good over evil.
Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Ghana Police Service; rather it is Ghana as a state.
It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country.
The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government.
It goes further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people.
Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices.
These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things.
In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the root of Ghana's Identity Crisis.
Ghanaians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Ghana has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Ghana has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We import almost everything including tooth pick and cotton buds.
We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Ghana does not become the pride she was destined to be. Ghana has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves.
The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance.
Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power that is the cult.
Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived.
We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an entrance to the grave, my cousin who completed the Nursing Training last year is contemplating leaving the shores of Ghana.
Sadly water ways are not available for our folks in the Afram Plains, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps.
We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects.
We destroy faster (this am guilty because of the work I do) than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to say Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little.
Ghana is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. I say this because after winning power they forget their manifestoes and focus on different things.
Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean.
And that is exactly what is happening. Ghana has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air.
Life expectancy in Ghana is at a lowly 50 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems.
Given Ghana’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Ghana ought to be what Malaysia is to the Asia continent, or what India is or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation.
The Ghana's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief.
Yes, that is the crux of Ghana's identity problem.
Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Ghana Police Service; rather it is Ghana as a state.
It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country.
The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government.
It goes further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people.
Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices.
These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things.
In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the root of Ghana's Identity Crisis.
Ghanaians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Ghana has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Ghana has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We import almost everything including tooth pick and cotton buds.
We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Ghana does not become the pride she was destined to be. Ghana has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves.
The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance.
Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power that is the cult.
Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived.
We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an entrance to the grave, my cousin who completed the Nursing Training last year is contemplating leaving the shores of Ghana.
Sadly water ways are not available for our folks in the Afram Plains, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps.
We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects.
We destroy faster (this am guilty because of the work I do) than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to say Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little.
Ghana is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. I say this because after winning power they forget their manifestoes and focus on different things.
Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean.
And that is exactly what is happening. Ghana has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air.
Life expectancy in Ghana is at a lowly 50 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems.
Given Ghana’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Ghana ought to be what Malaysia is to the Asia continent, or what India is or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation.
The Ghana's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief.
Yes, that is the crux of Ghana's identity problem.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Ghana’s Cult Of Corruption
Virtually every Ghanaian knows and strongly believes that any day Ghana is able to make up its mind to end its obscene and ruinous romance with the stubborn monster called “Corruption”, this country will automatically witness the kind of prosperity no one had thought was possible in these parts. Just imagine the amount of public funds being stolen and squandered daily under various guises by too many public officers and their accomplices, and the great transformation that would happen to public infrastructure and the lives of the citizenry if this organized banditry can at least be reduced by fifty percent!
Now, is this monster divorceable? Of course, yes. But are there any signs that anyone in the corridors of power is interested in ending the strong grip it maintains on the very soul of the nation? That is the problem. It is sheer foolishness to expect any of them to willingly block the very hole from which great goodies also flow to him or her just because some other persons are also benefiting from there. No, you can neither fight corruption with soiled hands nor retain monopoly of it! It spreads like cancer. And the whole thing has now been horribly compounded by the emergence and empowerment of a very formidable class whose sustenance and longevity solely depend on its ability to continue sustaining the culture of corruption and bleeding the nation pale.
This problem began when public office gradually ceased to be a platform for rendering selfless service to the people and transformed into the easiest route to financial empowerment. And since then, several generations of public officers have passed through public office, looting the nation blind with utmost impunity, and retired into abundance and incredible plenty, without any fear of anyone ever prying into the clearly unearned wealth they flaunt with utmost abandon. Thus, an ever-swelling Cult of Looters has emerged, whose nuisance value and the ruinous culture they are perpetuating, are now the undisputed headaches of the nation. And since it is now almost impossible to find any former board chairman, minister, president (military of civilian) and several other categories of public officers who is not sitting on boundless accumulation of unearned wealth, it has also become impossible to persuade the current rulers to resist the temptation of surpassing their predecessors in the stealing contest – the only thing that qualifies them for the membership of the great Cult of Corruption.
Indeed, wealth has become everything and no one cares any more about leaving behind sterling legacies and a good name. And so, virtually no Ghanaian minister or say DCE, for instance, would find it ennobling to wake up every morning, after he had left office, to engage in honest labour to earn a living. That would automatically demean him, and present him as “inferior” to his colleagues; in fact, even his people may begin to call him a big fool for returning from the Government a “poor man.” And, so the desperation to retire into boundless wealth and comfort is the reason for the mindless stealing going on everywhere.
Who now will break this circle? Well, he must be a person with no inclination to steal! And who is that person – who does not want to retire into billions after public office? Is it the president, ministers, or even the chairpersons of bodies set up to battle the monster to the ground? That’s one question we need to answer sincerely, because, it is difficult to find any person among those ruling us today who is more interested in acquiring a good name than accumulating unearned riches. No doubt, the Cult of Corruption is an attractive assemblage of the nation’s political and economic elite, and the sole qualification for initiation into this elite cult is wealth, boundless wealth, stolen from the public treasury, and ownership of a couple of exquisite mansions in choice areas in Cantonments, East Legon, owing fats bank accounts outside and so on.
I doubt if the point being made here should in the least sound strange to anyone who has lived in Ghana.
How then can this monster be tamed? How can anyone make all the past public officers to give up all they had stolen and live normal lives with resources whose sources are explainable, in order to make those currently in office to resist the temptation to steal? Where would any one possibly start? And who would lead such a campaign? When will Ghana be made a functional state so that people would not need to go to great lengths to steal in order to provide for themselves the amenities and comforts they were failed to put in place for the entire citizenry when they were in power? With this dreadful cult in effective command at all our public institutions, how then can we possibly hope to have a free and fair election in this country? Because, having criminally accumulated so much money while in office, these fellows only enthrone themselves as formidable godfathers and kingmakers, and deploy the billions at their disposal to install and remove governments at will.
Many of them can single-handedly found and fund political parties without the slightest impact on their bottomless pockets. They also have all it takes to frustrate any attempt to pry into their slimy and hideous pasts.
The Cult of Corruption also has many quiet and more deadly members. These include “very successful and wise” fronts, errand boys (and girls), thugs whom the ‘Boss’ use (or had used) to prosecute their criminal accumulations, and, also, the countless mistresses, concubines and “state prostitutes” who take care of the leisure moments of the Boss.
These, too, in the process of time, acquire their own wealth and clout, and gradually rise in prominence to become “successful business moguls” or “party stalwarts.” Others get into government as Special Advisers, Commissioners, and Ministers. A nation is judged by the quality of persons leading it. On this score, Ghana has been most unlucky.
Now, with such a very formidable criminal elite controlling the politics and economy of the nation, with many of them even maintaining effective hotlines to the Presidency, how can anyone pretend to enthrone transparency in the governance of the country? How can corruption be rooted out? How can progress be recorded? Do the fellows ruling us even understand what it means to build a country? By the way, where would the person intending to root out corruption even start from? The sheer number, clout and destructive ability of members of this Cult of Corruption are simply too intimidating. Some have over the years even matured to become refined, patrician “elder statesmen” (and women) with vast “family business” empires, commanding enormous respect, but still doing enormous harm to the nation.
Yet the only day jobs anyone could remember they ever did were serving as ministers or ambassadors, army or police officers, special advisers, commissioners, permanent secretaries or just as a “director in the presidency.”
But should we give up? No! Never! No society should ever sit passively and watch the scums, scoundrels and dregs in its midst seize its tomorrow and murder it. That nation is doomed which has shameless thieves as its kings. Ask yourself today: What are the antecedents of my governor, lawmaker or councilor? Can a thief possibly succeed in rebuilding the very house he is busy plundering? It amounts to unqualified foolishness on the part of the majority to allow themselves to be perpetually enslaved by a criminally-minded minority? A time comes in the life of a nation when the people must rise with one voice and bellow a big NO! And that time is now!
Now, is this monster divorceable? Of course, yes. But are there any signs that anyone in the corridors of power is interested in ending the strong grip it maintains on the very soul of the nation? That is the problem. It is sheer foolishness to expect any of them to willingly block the very hole from which great goodies also flow to him or her just because some other persons are also benefiting from there. No, you can neither fight corruption with soiled hands nor retain monopoly of it! It spreads like cancer. And the whole thing has now been horribly compounded by the emergence and empowerment of a very formidable class whose sustenance and longevity solely depend on its ability to continue sustaining the culture of corruption and bleeding the nation pale.
This problem began when public office gradually ceased to be a platform for rendering selfless service to the people and transformed into the easiest route to financial empowerment. And since then, several generations of public officers have passed through public office, looting the nation blind with utmost impunity, and retired into abundance and incredible plenty, without any fear of anyone ever prying into the clearly unearned wealth they flaunt with utmost abandon. Thus, an ever-swelling Cult of Looters has emerged, whose nuisance value and the ruinous culture they are perpetuating, are now the undisputed headaches of the nation. And since it is now almost impossible to find any former board chairman, minister, president (military of civilian) and several other categories of public officers who is not sitting on boundless accumulation of unearned wealth, it has also become impossible to persuade the current rulers to resist the temptation of surpassing their predecessors in the stealing contest – the only thing that qualifies them for the membership of the great Cult of Corruption.
Indeed, wealth has become everything and no one cares any more about leaving behind sterling legacies and a good name. And so, virtually no Ghanaian minister or say DCE, for instance, would find it ennobling to wake up every morning, after he had left office, to engage in honest labour to earn a living. That would automatically demean him, and present him as “inferior” to his colleagues; in fact, even his people may begin to call him a big fool for returning from the Government a “poor man.” And, so the desperation to retire into boundless wealth and comfort is the reason for the mindless stealing going on everywhere.
Who now will break this circle? Well, he must be a person with no inclination to steal! And who is that person – who does not want to retire into billions after public office? Is it the president, ministers, or even the chairpersons of bodies set up to battle the monster to the ground? That’s one question we need to answer sincerely, because, it is difficult to find any person among those ruling us today who is more interested in acquiring a good name than accumulating unearned riches. No doubt, the Cult of Corruption is an attractive assemblage of the nation’s political and economic elite, and the sole qualification for initiation into this elite cult is wealth, boundless wealth, stolen from the public treasury, and ownership of a couple of exquisite mansions in choice areas in Cantonments, East Legon, owing fats bank accounts outside and so on.
I doubt if the point being made here should in the least sound strange to anyone who has lived in Ghana.
How then can this monster be tamed? How can anyone make all the past public officers to give up all they had stolen and live normal lives with resources whose sources are explainable, in order to make those currently in office to resist the temptation to steal? Where would any one possibly start? And who would lead such a campaign? When will Ghana be made a functional state so that people would not need to go to great lengths to steal in order to provide for themselves the amenities and comforts they were failed to put in place for the entire citizenry when they were in power? With this dreadful cult in effective command at all our public institutions, how then can we possibly hope to have a free and fair election in this country? Because, having criminally accumulated so much money while in office, these fellows only enthrone themselves as formidable godfathers and kingmakers, and deploy the billions at their disposal to install and remove governments at will.
Many of them can single-handedly found and fund political parties without the slightest impact on their bottomless pockets. They also have all it takes to frustrate any attempt to pry into their slimy and hideous pasts.
The Cult of Corruption also has many quiet and more deadly members. These include “very successful and wise” fronts, errand boys (and girls), thugs whom the ‘Boss’ use (or had used) to prosecute their criminal accumulations, and, also, the countless mistresses, concubines and “state prostitutes” who take care of the leisure moments of the Boss.
These, too, in the process of time, acquire their own wealth and clout, and gradually rise in prominence to become “successful business moguls” or “party stalwarts.” Others get into government as Special Advisers, Commissioners, and Ministers. A nation is judged by the quality of persons leading it. On this score, Ghana has been most unlucky.
Now, with such a very formidable criminal elite controlling the politics and economy of the nation, with many of them even maintaining effective hotlines to the Presidency, how can anyone pretend to enthrone transparency in the governance of the country? How can corruption be rooted out? How can progress be recorded? Do the fellows ruling us even understand what it means to build a country? By the way, where would the person intending to root out corruption even start from? The sheer number, clout and destructive ability of members of this Cult of Corruption are simply too intimidating. Some have over the years even matured to become refined, patrician “elder statesmen” (and women) with vast “family business” empires, commanding enormous respect, but still doing enormous harm to the nation.
Yet the only day jobs anyone could remember they ever did were serving as ministers or ambassadors, army or police officers, special advisers, commissioners, permanent secretaries or just as a “director in the presidency.”
But should we give up? No! Never! No society should ever sit passively and watch the scums, scoundrels and dregs in its midst seize its tomorrow and murder it. That nation is doomed which has shameless thieves as its kings. Ask yourself today: What are the antecedents of my governor, lawmaker or councilor? Can a thief possibly succeed in rebuilding the very house he is busy plundering? It amounts to unqualified foolishness on the part of the majority to allow themselves to be perpetually enslaved by a criminally-minded minority? A time comes in the life of a nation when the people must rise with one voice and bellow a big NO! And that time is now!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING GOVERNMENT
Most Ghanaians often say that they are sick and tired of Ghana, while not a few admit that they are actually ashamed to be Ghanaians. However the truth is that they are proud Ghanaians who actually hate the Government for their gross ineptitude towards the affairs of our country Ghana.
Some actually describe the nation as a failed state but rather what we have is a failed government. There is a Chinese proverb that says “when a fish starts to rotten it starts from the head’ conversely what can one expect from a leadership that is politically and financially rotten?
Any sane and purposeful leader can make a desired change in nine months but half way through his first year not only are Ghanaians wondering what’s going on, their President Atta Mills is also waiting for someone to tell him what the heck is going on! He is like a pilot who is wondering why his plane has no auto pilot button.
According to Nicollo Machiavelli in his book ‘The Prince’ (If he reads, Atta should please spend an hour and half to read the book. It will do him good.) he said (and rightly so) that the major task of any ruler is to pick good advisers and once he has achieved this, the job of ruling the nation creditably is half achieved. Here our president has surrounded himself with a bunch of misfits and minions who are incapable of generating any idea or proffer any solution to move the nation forward.
A Communications director goes abroad and insults left, right and centre all in the name of helping the President come to power because he left his job at a bank.
What kind of advice can this man proffer? The same kindergarten boy has continually tainted our image both at home and abroad with his conflicting statements, action and inaction as regards the fight against drugs.
This brings us to another minister who in her desperate bid to be a minister condescended to be the one that does damage control for those whose stock in trade is to do everything their own way irrespective of the fact that it makes our country look bad.
She is so keen on rebranding hapless, homeless and hungry Ghanaians that she forgot that those that need to absorb the rebranding culture are her fellow ministers who go to radio stations with the intentions of beating up a journalist if speaks his mind about his work.
Also, the Deputy Chief of Staff who has turned the castle into a police station where imported posh cars only are seized from young men.
Though to be honest, I am utterly confused as to the effective way to get people who do not have access to potable water, electricity, health care, good roads, education and human dignity rebranded while those who under the guise of been professional politicians loot the country silly and sneer at the rebranding campaign claiming that the Minister is only looking for an avenue to feather her nest. Pray do tell what kind of advice she can proffer to President Atta ?
While our industries spend boardroom time mulling over why they should remain in Ghana instead of moving shop to South Africa.
No points for guessing the quality of advice President Atta will be receiving or has definitely received.
A minister of Health who sees his colleagues and other top government scurrying abroad to get a cure for a headache or to have a tooth extracted will definitely be the butt of jokes whenever he finds himself in the midst of other medical colleagues.
Perhaps he is doing his job and passing across the necessary pieces of advice to Atta and the President simply refuses to take any action, then I guess the honourable way out is for the minister to resign from the cabinet.
Jokes apart do we have ministers who handle and advice on transportation, roads, environment and labour? Our transport sector is spent, roads where available are decorated with potholes, fumes flaring from industries has destroyed our environment and health of citizens.
The economy is swimming dangerously down a precipice, and our or rather Atta’s economic advisers are obviously having such good time at Osu that they fail to see why people are complaining about the economy!
As far as they are concerned Ghanaians are a bunch of whiners and if they can just but stop whining for a second they will discover that the “Joshua Nyame” that is needed to revive our economy and put our nation on the path of rapid growth.
So while we wait for the ‘Joshua Nyame” to take effect and start work, can our economic egg heads whiling away at Accra look for another remedy in case Atta’s mighty power fails to produce the desired effect? I am not a pessimist but after nine months and the economy not showing any sign of recovery, I think its time to start shopping for other remedies.
The chief image maker cum spin doctor is a vibrant journalist with his caustic and incisive write ups on government action or inaction but now finds it more appropriate to leave more important issues behind and inform the nation that his benefactor has no intention to effect any change in his cabinet so the incompetent ministers should stop fretting!
He has now started writing promotional stories for his benefactor and even fights his internal fights for him, wonderful isn’t it.
Hungry Ghanaians can watch party Regional Chairmen and General Secretary in America on T.V having a good time at their expense-tax payers” we still love Ghana and Ghana will be great if only our Leaders will act like leaders and not like a combined team of armed robbers and terrorists out to destroy what they didn’t build.
Some actually describe the nation as a failed state but rather what we have is a failed government. There is a Chinese proverb that says “when a fish starts to rotten it starts from the head’ conversely what can one expect from a leadership that is politically and financially rotten?
Any sane and purposeful leader can make a desired change in nine months but half way through his first year not only are Ghanaians wondering what’s going on, their President Atta Mills is also waiting for someone to tell him what the heck is going on! He is like a pilot who is wondering why his plane has no auto pilot button.
According to Nicollo Machiavelli in his book ‘The Prince’ (If he reads, Atta should please spend an hour and half to read the book. It will do him good.) he said (and rightly so) that the major task of any ruler is to pick good advisers and once he has achieved this, the job of ruling the nation creditably is half achieved. Here our president has surrounded himself with a bunch of misfits and minions who are incapable of generating any idea or proffer any solution to move the nation forward.
A Communications director goes abroad and insults left, right and centre all in the name of helping the President come to power because he left his job at a bank.
What kind of advice can this man proffer? The same kindergarten boy has continually tainted our image both at home and abroad with his conflicting statements, action and inaction as regards the fight against drugs.
This brings us to another minister who in her desperate bid to be a minister condescended to be the one that does damage control for those whose stock in trade is to do everything their own way irrespective of the fact that it makes our country look bad.
She is so keen on rebranding hapless, homeless and hungry Ghanaians that she forgot that those that need to absorb the rebranding culture are her fellow ministers who go to radio stations with the intentions of beating up a journalist if speaks his mind about his work.
Also, the Deputy Chief of Staff who has turned the castle into a police station where imported posh cars only are seized from young men.
Though to be honest, I am utterly confused as to the effective way to get people who do not have access to potable water, electricity, health care, good roads, education and human dignity rebranded while those who under the guise of been professional politicians loot the country silly and sneer at the rebranding campaign claiming that the Minister is only looking for an avenue to feather her nest. Pray do tell what kind of advice she can proffer to President Atta ?
While our industries spend boardroom time mulling over why they should remain in Ghana instead of moving shop to South Africa.
No points for guessing the quality of advice President Atta will be receiving or has definitely received.
A minister of Health who sees his colleagues and other top government scurrying abroad to get a cure for a headache or to have a tooth extracted will definitely be the butt of jokes whenever he finds himself in the midst of other medical colleagues.
Perhaps he is doing his job and passing across the necessary pieces of advice to Atta and the President simply refuses to take any action, then I guess the honourable way out is for the minister to resign from the cabinet.
Jokes apart do we have ministers who handle and advice on transportation, roads, environment and labour? Our transport sector is spent, roads where available are decorated with potholes, fumes flaring from industries has destroyed our environment and health of citizens.
The economy is swimming dangerously down a precipice, and our or rather Atta’s economic advisers are obviously having such good time at Osu that they fail to see why people are complaining about the economy!
As far as they are concerned Ghanaians are a bunch of whiners and if they can just but stop whining for a second they will discover that the “Joshua Nyame” that is needed to revive our economy and put our nation on the path of rapid growth.
So while we wait for the ‘Joshua Nyame” to take effect and start work, can our economic egg heads whiling away at Accra look for another remedy in case Atta’s mighty power fails to produce the desired effect? I am not a pessimist but after nine months and the economy not showing any sign of recovery, I think its time to start shopping for other remedies.
The chief image maker cum spin doctor is a vibrant journalist with his caustic and incisive write ups on government action or inaction but now finds it more appropriate to leave more important issues behind and inform the nation that his benefactor has no intention to effect any change in his cabinet so the incompetent ministers should stop fretting!
He has now started writing promotional stories for his benefactor and even fights his internal fights for him, wonderful isn’t it.
Hungry Ghanaians can watch party Regional Chairmen and General Secretary in America on T.V having a good time at their expense-tax payers” we still love Ghana and Ghana will be great if only our Leaders will act like leaders and not like a combined team of armed robbers and terrorists out to destroy what they didn’t build.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Rot In The Methodist Church Ghana!
Agreed! Agreed!! This is a refrain often heard from the lips of delegates at the Methodist Synods and Conferences. These Synods/Conferences are organized yearly or biennial at chosen locations in the Methodist Connexion.
The refrain as I choose to call it has become a shibboleth among Synod/Conference members. It has also become a derisive word in Methodist circles signifying blind or sycophantic acquiescence to decisions - questionable or otherwise - taken at these Synods and Conferences.
These Synods/Conferences, according to the Methodist Constitution, meet to take stock of the activities, programmes among others of the past year and to plan the way forward for Church growth and development. It is at such Synods and Conferences that the bishop or the Presiding Bishop as the case may be gives his address on the state of the Church.
Last year’s Conference which was hosted by the Winneba Diocese incidentally happened to the last to be addressed by the outgoing Presiding Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye Mensah. He surprised many by his almost two-hour delivery. As expected the then Lay President in the person of Mr. James Abadoo Brew profusely congratulated him for his address describing it as a ‘Fidel Castro-like’ because of its lengthy nature. Predictably the whole conference also gave him a standing ovation. Applause! Applause!! Conference was happy. According to the speech delivered and in the estimation of conference the Methodist Church Ghana was moving forward in numbers, projects and developments. But is that the case on the ground?
Unfortunately, certain diocesan synods and even pronouncements from some bishops do not seem to agree with this assertion by the Presiding Bishop.Why they could not and did not even see it fit to question the truth or half-truths peddled by the outgoing Presiding Bishop may well epitomize the camaraderie and the blind allegiance that characterize the way things are done in the Methodist Church Ghana.
However, as God would have it there were some few diocesan bishops who tried to speak out and tell it ‘like it is’ at their respective synods. A perusal of past copies of the church’s publication The Methodist Times reveal that the bishop of Accra, Rt Rev. Abraham Tagoe on two occasions expressed grave concern about the stagnation in church’s growth and warned the hierarchy about doing business as usual. At a similar diocesan synod in Kumasi, the Rt Rev Nuh Ben Abubekr also had something similar to say about the church.
A concerned lay member, one Solomon Quaye-Lartey was also worried that ‘the church and all lack commitment.’ Apparently the church talks more than it acts. No wonder the Administrative Bishop in a sermon he once delivered at a thanksgiving service to round off an anniversary celebration of a church organization remarked that ‘the church needs practical leaders and not theorist.’
Meanwhile concerned church members have been asking themselves questions as to what the church has been up to these past five or six years. Call it the wasted years!
Their questions become legitimate when viewed against previous Methodist administrations manned by the late Rt Revds. C.F.C. Grant, Wallace Koomson, Adama Stephens and in recent past the surviving Most Rev Dr Samuel Asante Antwi. It was during these periods that structures were mapped out for proper administration of the church.
It was during that period the Methodist Headquarters had a building befitting its name. It was during that period that the Donewell Insurance Company came into being. It was during that period the Methodist Church Ghana joined the Episcopal family – with all its faults. It was during that period the church revisited the Wesleyan revival of old at an unprecedented outreach programme at the nation’s Independence Square not to mention the evangelistic foray into the Volta Region. It was during that period that the Methodist Church established the Methodist University. On the contrary these past few years have not only witnessed a lull in evangelism across the connexion but also physical development and growth has also been stagnant. What a shame?
It must however be said that when the outgoing Presiding Bishop. Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah came onto the scene he made half-hearted attempts to continue with the evangelism drive and tried hard to harp on it. As it turned out the strings on his harp and lyre where discordant. Mere noise, no melody! He tried to do his own style of evangelism by embarking on trips abroad.
The trips brought little or no benefit to the church except to himself personally. A youth conference held in Brazil a couple of years ago is a case in point. Strangely, the youth director and some youth leaders who were to attend the programme were sidelined. It is said he went on the trip accompanied by the present General Director of the Board of Social Responsibility and Rural Development. It will be interesting to ask the Presiding Bishop what he learnt at the youth conference and whether the youth in the church are benefiting from it.One Evang. Jacob Ajavon has single-handedly opened a mission in Burkina Faso for the Methodist Church Ghana. Sad to say, support from the connexion has been abysmally poor. The story is no different at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains.
There have been times; I have been reliably informed that the Minister-in-charge of evangelism has to dip into his pocket to feed the missionary stationed there because money from the connexion was not forthcoming.
The money that was available was spent on the purchase and maintenance of luxury cars for the comfort of the bishops and the overseas travels of some bishops and the Presiding Bishop. Just in your spare time visit the synods and conferences and you will marvel at the display of 4x4 vehicles by the bishops and some superintendent ministers.
It makes you wonder whether priesthood in the Methodist Church Ghana is a call, a vocation, a profession or a business. Once upon a time a foreign delegate to one of the conferences in a conversation with a driver assigned to him expressed horror and disgust at the flashy cars being used by the clergy.
‘How could they do this in the midst of all this poverty around’? He wondered.Still on their free spending, the 15 or so bishops accompanied by their wives in clandestinely visited the state of Israel on a pleasure trip for about 12 days.
It was only one bishop - the then bishop of Tamale in the person of Rt Rev Ato Brown who declined to go on that trip. Either his good conscience told him not to go on that trip or the Diocese could not finance the trip. The trip from what I gathered cost about 45 million old cedis per couple. Do the mathematics and you tell me the cost to the church? Believe it or not the Presiding Bishop in his report and final address to conference last August did not have the guts to tell the conference about this trip. What was he trying to hide?
It is strange that in his report to the Winneba Conference he tried to encourage the church to enter into partnership with private enterprises to generate income for the church. Another reason was to warn the church off its dependency on harvests collections and the like considering the discouraging contribution to the Methodist Development Fund. But has something concretely been done in this regard? The answer is no!
It is important to note that on leaving office the immediate past presiding bishop left handing over notes and blue prints to Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah. The notes dealt with the construction of a Methodist Headquarters complex, the establishment of a Methodist Trust Bank.
These proposals, if I may call them, were all at advanced stages. What has happened to them? These things were spitefully left in locked drawers to gather dust. So how come in the twilight of his administration, Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah now sees the wisdom to invite private enterprises to partner the church.
Lest I forget I am told that recently the bishops, the Presiding Bishop included, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and saw at first hand how the churches there have entered into partnership with private enterprises and are doing wonders.
‘We can also do same here,’ he reportedly told his fellow bishops. Hypocrisy?Notably the church has acquired a near three billion old cedis new manse for the Presiding Bishop. The purchase was made after the first manse for the Presiding Bishop located at Asylum Down, Adabraka, was sold off to a business concern.
The furnishings and all reportedly cost over 800 million old cedis and were brought in from China, people say.
In spite of all these free spending, the Methodist Church Ghana for the past six years has been marking time and for inexplicable reasons church members have lost their voices and the clergy are having a field day.
Meanwhile church workers are getting poorer and being turned into mendicant paupers. Condition of service for church workers leaves much to be desired. The workers are afraid to join Unions for fear of losing favour with the church.
I suggest that the incoming administration headed by the Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante must stay focused and business-minded. He must say no to paternalism and the professional praise singers.
The holistic aspect of church work is something he need not lose sight of. The accounts are rusely having a field day and adding to their bank accounts because they know their bishops and ministers are equally guilty. ‘Scratch my back, whilst I scratch yours.’ That is the name of the game.
NB: Those trooping into the offices of the Daily Searchlight should stop because their pleas won’t stop me from exposing men of God like I do the corrupt politicians.
The refrain as I choose to call it has become a shibboleth among Synod/Conference members. It has also become a derisive word in Methodist circles signifying blind or sycophantic acquiescence to decisions - questionable or otherwise - taken at these Synods and Conferences.
These Synods/Conferences, according to the Methodist Constitution, meet to take stock of the activities, programmes among others of the past year and to plan the way forward for Church growth and development. It is at such Synods and Conferences that the bishop or the Presiding Bishop as the case may be gives his address on the state of the Church.
Last year’s Conference which was hosted by the Winneba Diocese incidentally happened to the last to be addressed by the outgoing Presiding Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye Mensah. He surprised many by his almost two-hour delivery. As expected the then Lay President in the person of Mr. James Abadoo Brew profusely congratulated him for his address describing it as a ‘Fidel Castro-like’ because of its lengthy nature. Predictably the whole conference also gave him a standing ovation. Applause! Applause!! Conference was happy. According to the speech delivered and in the estimation of conference the Methodist Church Ghana was moving forward in numbers, projects and developments. But is that the case on the ground?
Unfortunately, certain diocesan synods and even pronouncements from some bishops do not seem to agree with this assertion by the Presiding Bishop.Why they could not and did not even see it fit to question the truth or half-truths peddled by the outgoing Presiding Bishop may well epitomize the camaraderie and the blind allegiance that characterize the way things are done in the Methodist Church Ghana.
However, as God would have it there were some few diocesan bishops who tried to speak out and tell it ‘like it is’ at their respective synods. A perusal of past copies of the church’s publication The Methodist Times reveal that the bishop of Accra, Rt Rev. Abraham Tagoe on two occasions expressed grave concern about the stagnation in church’s growth and warned the hierarchy about doing business as usual. At a similar diocesan synod in Kumasi, the Rt Rev Nuh Ben Abubekr also had something similar to say about the church.
A concerned lay member, one Solomon Quaye-Lartey was also worried that ‘the church and all lack commitment.’ Apparently the church talks more than it acts. No wonder the Administrative Bishop in a sermon he once delivered at a thanksgiving service to round off an anniversary celebration of a church organization remarked that ‘the church needs practical leaders and not theorist.’
Meanwhile concerned church members have been asking themselves questions as to what the church has been up to these past five or six years. Call it the wasted years!
Their questions become legitimate when viewed against previous Methodist administrations manned by the late Rt Revds. C.F.C. Grant, Wallace Koomson, Adama Stephens and in recent past the surviving Most Rev Dr Samuel Asante Antwi. It was during these periods that structures were mapped out for proper administration of the church.
It was during that period the Methodist Headquarters had a building befitting its name. It was during that period that the Donewell Insurance Company came into being. It was during that period the Methodist Church Ghana joined the Episcopal family – with all its faults. It was during that period the church revisited the Wesleyan revival of old at an unprecedented outreach programme at the nation’s Independence Square not to mention the evangelistic foray into the Volta Region. It was during that period that the Methodist Church established the Methodist University. On the contrary these past few years have not only witnessed a lull in evangelism across the connexion but also physical development and growth has also been stagnant. What a shame?
It must however be said that when the outgoing Presiding Bishop. Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah came onto the scene he made half-hearted attempts to continue with the evangelism drive and tried hard to harp on it. As it turned out the strings on his harp and lyre where discordant. Mere noise, no melody! He tried to do his own style of evangelism by embarking on trips abroad.
The trips brought little or no benefit to the church except to himself personally. A youth conference held in Brazil a couple of years ago is a case in point. Strangely, the youth director and some youth leaders who were to attend the programme were sidelined. It is said he went on the trip accompanied by the present General Director of the Board of Social Responsibility and Rural Development. It will be interesting to ask the Presiding Bishop what he learnt at the youth conference and whether the youth in the church are benefiting from it.One Evang. Jacob Ajavon has single-handedly opened a mission in Burkina Faso for the Methodist Church Ghana. Sad to say, support from the connexion has been abysmally poor. The story is no different at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains.
There have been times; I have been reliably informed that the Minister-in-charge of evangelism has to dip into his pocket to feed the missionary stationed there because money from the connexion was not forthcoming.
The money that was available was spent on the purchase and maintenance of luxury cars for the comfort of the bishops and the overseas travels of some bishops and the Presiding Bishop. Just in your spare time visit the synods and conferences and you will marvel at the display of 4x4 vehicles by the bishops and some superintendent ministers.
It makes you wonder whether priesthood in the Methodist Church Ghana is a call, a vocation, a profession or a business. Once upon a time a foreign delegate to one of the conferences in a conversation with a driver assigned to him expressed horror and disgust at the flashy cars being used by the clergy.
‘How could they do this in the midst of all this poverty around’? He wondered.Still on their free spending, the 15 or so bishops accompanied by their wives in clandestinely visited the state of Israel on a pleasure trip for about 12 days.
It was only one bishop - the then bishop of Tamale in the person of Rt Rev Ato Brown who declined to go on that trip. Either his good conscience told him not to go on that trip or the Diocese could not finance the trip. The trip from what I gathered cost about 45 million old cedis per couple. Do the mathematics and you tell me the cost to the church? Believe it or not the Presiding Bishop in his report and final address to conference last August did not have the guts to tell the conference about this trip. What was he trying to hide?
It is strange that in his report to the Winneba Conference he tried to encourage the church to enter into partnership with private enterprises to generate income for the church. Another reason was to warn the church off its dependency on harvests collections and the like considering the discouraging contribution to the Methodist Development Fund. But has something concretely been done in this regard? The answer is no!
It is important to note that on leaving office the immediate past presiding bishop left handing over notes and blue prints to Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah. The notes dealt with the construction of a Methodist Headquarters complex, the establishment of a Methodist Trust Bank.
These proposals, if I may call them, were all at advanced stages. What has happened to them? These things were spitefully left in locked drawers to gather dust. So how come in the twilight of his administration, Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah now sees the wisdom to invite private enterprises to partner the church.
Lest I forget I am told that recently the bishops, the Presiding Bishop included, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and saw at first hand how the churches there have entered into partnership with private enterprises and are doing wonders.
‘We can also do same here,’ he reportedly told his fellow bishops. Hypocrisy?Notably the church has acquired a near three billion old cedis new manse for the Presiding Bishop. The purchase was made after the first manse for the Presiding Bishop located at Asylum Down, Adabraka, was sold off to a business concern.
The furnishings and all reportedly cost over 800 million old cedis and were brought in from China, people say.
In spite of all these free spending, the Methodist Church Ghana for the past six years has been marking time and for inexplicable reasons church members have lost their voices and the clergy are having a field day.
Meanwhile church workers are getting poorer and being turned into mendicant paupers. Condition of service for church workers leaves much to be desired. The workers are afraid to join Unions for fear of losing favour with the church.
I suggest that the incoming administration headed by the Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante must stay focused and business-minded. He must say no to paternalism and the professional praise singers.
The holistic aspect of church work is something he need not lose sight of. The accounts are rusely having a field day and adding to their bank accounts because they know their bishops and ministers are equally guilty. ‘Scratch my back, whilst I scratch yours.’ That is the name of the game.
NB: Those trooping into the offices of the Daily Searchlight should stop because their pleas won’t stop me from exposing men of God like I do the corrupt politicians.